Education

J.D., Pepperdine School of Law, 1987 Law Review Editor and Moot Court Board

Certification in Mediation, UC Irvine and Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine School of Law

Bar Admissions

State Bar of California

All Federal District Courts in California

Cynthia Lane

Senior Counsel

Cynthia Lane is Senior Counsel at Friedman Stroffe & Gerard, P.C. She is experienced in both employment litigation and employment transactional matters.

Practice Group

Employment & Labor

Experience

Cynthia is an employment attorney with over 30 years of experience. She has advised executives and entrepreneurs from boutique to fortune 500 companies. She has represented employers in state and federal courts in California, Nevada and Arizona. She has evaluated, mediated and litigated cases involving wage and hour issues, wrongful termination, sexual harassment, as well as age, race, national origin, sexual orientation, and disability discrimination. She has an extensive background in the development and delivery of training programs both for management and employees regarding disability accommodation and leaves of absence, harassment (including #MeToo issues), misconduct, discrimination, workplace culture and violence and performance management. She has conducted investigations involving employee and supervisor misconduct, workplace violence and whistle-blower retaliation. She has also engaged in extensive pre-trial discovery and trial matters. She was a trial attorney for a chemical manufacturer involving 650 employees of Lockheed suing for injuries and death. She litigated these cases for three years in three trials, including longest civil trial in Los Angeles County history.

Prior to joining FSG, Cynthia was a Human Resources generalist for the Milwaukee County Transit System and an Employee Relations Specialist for UC Irvine. She provided legal advice to human resources professionals, professors, and management on discipline, misconduct and termination for UC Irvine, Orange County’s second largest employer. She successfully defended an age discrimination case before a three-judge panel. Based on her experiences in Human Resources as a client, she is uniquely positioned to understand a client’s fears and needs.

During law school, Cynthia interned at the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, working on AIDS, fetal protection, and bona fide occupational qualification cases. She also interned for the Southern California Edison Legal Department while on both the Law Review and the Moot Court Board.

Cynthia was an Instructor in the Human Resource Certificate Program at both UC Irvine and Loyola Marymount University. She taught and developed courses including Human Resources and the Law, Dispute Resolution, Arbitration and Mediation.

She has mediation certifications from both UC Irvine and The Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University School of Law.